On 3/4/2015 8:54 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:35 AM, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 3/4/2015 8:17 AM, Keyser Söze wrote:
On 3/4/15 8:14 AM, True North wrote:
KC
- show quoted text -
"Ha, haven't shoveled in weeks... Just drive through it That's why
God
made 4x4 and snow tires. It's so funny at work listening to everyone
complain about driving in the snow when they won't even spring for pair
of snow tires"


Pair of snow tires???
Up here they recommend all four.


We're supposed to get 4" to 8" of snow tonight. As long as I can "blast"
my way out the driveway with my old SUV, I'm happy. If it is more than
8", though, I'll have to call the plow guy.

Do you have part-time 4WD on that Toyota? If so, does it do the job in
the snow?





My truck has regular 6 ply truck tires on it. My wife's Mountaineer (or
whatever it is) has all season tires. Her's is automatic, all wheel
drive. My truck is conventional (selectable) 4 wheel drive with a
limited slip rear differential, so it's really 2 and a half wheel drive.

Neither of us have any problems going through fairly deep snow. Only
problems is ice, especially where the driveway slopes up to the house.
Snow tires offer no advantage on ice.

The reason I plow our driveway is because it is long and oil delivery,
propane delivery and other large trucks would have a difficult if not
impossible job trying to make it from the road to the house or barn.
I also have emergency vehicles in mind. It would be a bitch to have a
fire or medical issue and the responding vehicles couldn't make it to
the house.

If I can expose a good amount of the driveway the high
emissivity of the black asphalt absorbs enough radiation energy from
the sun to warm and either melt or sublimate any ice that forms, even
when ambient temps are well below freezing.



My 4Runner is selectable 4WD and it runs pretty well in snow and slush,
so long as I don't try to use it as a snow plow. I can usually get out
of the driveway so long as the snow is not too wet and isn't more than
8" deep. I don't try, though, until a couple of neighbors with bigger
vehicles cut furrows in our little private road. Once I get to our
traffic circle, typically, the county's contractors have at least plowed
one lane in the road, and by then all the "numbered" state and county
roads have been plowed.

Our propane dealer is pretty good at making sure the underground tank is
topped off on a schedule that coincides with bad weather. One of our
heat pumps uses propane for heat and electric for backup. The other is
only electric. But we need propane to run the hot water heater,
stovetop, and fireplace. No hot water = unhappy wife.

My 4Runner has about 225,000 miles on it. I don't need a boat tow
vehicle any more, which is why I am thinking of stepping down one size
to the smaller Toyota SUV that Don has...or maybe a Honda SUV. I like at
least part-time 4WD for the snow. I don't drive off-road at all.




Our house has two stoves, two clothes dryers and two gas fireplaces.
They are all fed from one, 100 gallon (80 gallon) propane tank. We
disconnected the fireplaces from the gas years ago, so we no longer use
them. The single 100 gallon propane tank will last for a year and a
half running the other items.

We also added a "Hot Dawg" heater to the main garage that is attached to
the house which is fed by a second, 100 gal propane tank. We use the
garage a lot and the dogs live and play out there so we keep it at 68
degrees. This winter (particularly February) has been much colder than
normal and we have had to fill it's propane tank every 4 weeks or so.

The other garage (where I keep the tractor) was re-finished back when I
was storing a couple of classic vintage cars in it. I added central air
conditioning and also two levels of electric heat in the air handler
(similar to heating systems in the south). The main heater is 10kw
and it has an additional 5kw "kicker" element if needed. I've never
needed it. For the winter I set the thermostat to about 40 degrees, so
it rarely runs but it keeps the garage warm enough that the little
diesel engine in the tractor has no problems firing up when needed
(which has been often this year).